SUVA JOURNAL

SUVA JOURNAL; In a South Seas Eden, a First Taste of Race Strife

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, Special to the New York Times

Published: May 1, 1987

SUVA, Fiji, April 29—
This South Pacific island group is often described as a paradise, not only for its beautiful beaches but also for the harmony of its ethnically divided population.

Fiji's palm-lined beaches are as charming as ever, but tensions are rising between the native Fijians and the Indians who slightly outnumber them.

Problems began after the election this month of a new Government, in which the Prime Minister is a Fijian but the key Cabinet posts are filled by Indians. That has led to angry demonstrations, including roadblocks put up by disgruntled Fijians, who charge that they are losing control of their own land.

''We as Fijians must fight for our right to rule our country,'' the leader of the Fijian Nationalist Party, Sakeasi Butadroka, said at a rally called after the election.

The backdrop to the tensions is the realization that native people elsewhere in the Pacific - from Aborigines in Australia and Maoris in New Zealand to native Hawaiians and American Indians in the United States - have lost control of their lands. Ethnic Fijians are determined that the same not happen here. They are concerned that the April election may be a watershed marking the beginning of Indian rule. Constitutional Change Sought

The tensions that have arisen here frame a question of importance throughout the Pacific: How should self-determination be reconciled with the special claims of a native people?

Ethnic Fijians already have some rights guaranteed in the country's Constitution, but some want a new constitutional amendment: a guarantee that only Fijians could run the government.

''This is not their country,'' a historian and member of the Great Council of Chiefs, Fiau Tabakaucoro, said of the Indians. ''They still speak Hindi. They still eat curry. They are not Christians.''

Ethnic Fijians were converted by Christian missionaries in the last century; the Indians are Hindus or Moslems.

Yet Miss Tabakaucoro stressed the difficulties that ethnic Fijians have in wresting economic and political power from Indians.

''How do you compete with a race that has thousands of years of what we call civilization?'' she asked. Referring to the cannabalism that used to exist here, she added, ''When the first Indians arrived in Fiji in 1879, my great-grandfathers were just about 10 years from eating each other.'' In Fiji for Generations

Yet to the Indians, it only makes sense that they should play a leading role in politics since they are the largest group in the population. Indians here wear saris and rarely intermarry, but they have been here for generations. Indians were brought by the British to work as indentured laborers, but Indian immigration virtually ceased after the 1920's. Today, the Indians here have little contact with the motherland except for the Indian films they watch in movie theaters.

''We know no other country; we have no other country,'' the new Attorney General, Jai Ram Reddy, said in an interview in his office. ''I would not say that Indian interests have become dominant. But the election does mark a watershed in that for the first time Indians will have a voice in government.''

Mr. Reddy is the most controversial of the new ministers, and some Fijians contend he uses the new Prime Minister as a puppet. There is no evidence to support the charge, but nevertheless the Indian complexion of the new Government is unmistakable. Although the new Prime Minister, Timoci Bavadra, is Fijian, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Foreign Minister are all Indians, in addition to Mr. Reddy.

Only 10 percent of ethnic Fijians voted for Dr. Bavadra's winning coalition, compared with some 85 percent support of Indians. Protests Are Peaceful

Ethnic Fijians, who are mostly black, constitute 46.2 percent of the population of 715,000. Indians make up 48.6 percent, with the remainder mostly Europeans and Chinese. The proportion of Indians has been declining slightly, because of lower birth rates and higher emigration.

So far the protests against the election have been peaceful. A march last week attracted several thousand Fijians and aroused fears of clashes between Fijians and Indians. But the march was peaceful, with marchers singing hymns and waving cheerfully to people on the sidewalk.

Further protests are planned, but both ethnic Fijians and Indians say they expect no violence.

The two ethnic communities have lived largely harmoniously, but there is little assimilation. For the most part, Fijians and Indians still go to separate schools and often live in separate neighborhoods. Some Indian boys date Fijian girls, but there is little intermarriage, and it is very rare to see Indian girls with Fijian boys.

Part of the problem is stereotypes on each side, according to Vijay Naidu, a sociologist at the University of the South Pacific here. Indians often regard Fijians as lazy and happy-go-lucky, while Fijians see Indians as cunning and grasping and deceitful, he said. Different Background Noted

One academic theory seeking to explain this gulf looks to the different agricultural background of each culture. Indians historically cultivated grain crops, which required careful cultivation and could be stored to provide for a family's future. Fijians, on the other hand, were used to fruits and roots that grew easily but did not store well. For them, the gain lay not in conserving the bounty but in sharing it, so that a favor might someday be returned.

In any case, Fijians found the recent election particularly galling because they had already effectively conceded defeat in the economic competition. Indians dominate the professions here, own the bus companies and most of the cars and run most small businesses. Yet the primacy of the ethnic Fijians in politics had partly compensated for that.

''The assumption had always been that Fijians would rule,'' said a social anthropologist from the Tonga Islands, Epeli Hau'ofa, who teaches at the University of the South Pacific. ''That makes this election a milestone.''

photo of Fujians and Indians on a street in Suva, Fuji (NYT/Nicholas D. Kristof)